Butterflies In A Bottle

At some point I will get my life back. At some point my toilets will sparkle again, my girls' clothes will match, they will have clean socks. At some point, my hubby won't have to go to work and "scrounge for food" (his words), since the fridge is empty. I will be able to recognize myself in the mirror, the dark circles under my eyes vanished, because sleep is a priority again. At some point I will finish Breaking Dawn. I only have two hundred pages to go.

I'm not even getting the freak out that I usually get when I'm drawing to the close of a good book. And let me tell you, this has been a good book. A good four books. I think I'm not getting the freak out, because I actually need a break. I'm actually starting to resemble a vampire.

I can't even remember the last time I've been sucked into a book (or four) like this. Consumed. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm late jumping on the Twilight bandwagon and haven't had to wait for the next book to come out. I've had the next one just waiting for me (thanks to my Twilight consumed sister), so that I can just continue on. And thank goodness for that. I don't know how y'all actually waited for the next book to come out, back when all of the Twilight madness began. I would be pulling my hair out. I would not be fun.

I went to the doctor on Monday and when I walked into the exam room, the nurse said, "Oh, you're one of those Twilight people too." She noticed that I was carrying (cradling) Breaking Dawn. These books go everywhere with me. They are like my third child. I'm afraid to leave them alone. Someone might take them. And I don't want to waste any precious minutes of free time I may suddenly come across. Sometimes those red lights are long.

I find out the nurse is into them too. She's on her second go around of reading them. What is up with these books? You cannot read them once. My sister has read them like four times. All of them. She was starting to get the shakes when I held on to them a little too long. She even mentioned something about how her lending them to me is just like the library. There's a time limit. A due date. She was sending me text messages...little reminders to get them back to her. Now.

I'm not even into vampires! I didn't do the whole Anne Rice bit. Back when I thought Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were The Bomb, I didn't get into Interview with a Vampire. Seeing them all pasty and fangy and long hair-ed did absolutely nothing for me. So I don't know what has come over with me with these books. But I've been thinking about it.

I think it's the love story. The whole love conquers all bit. The idea that you become so wrapped up in one person that not only does the room fall away when you see them, but the world. That absolutely nothing could keep you apart. Not even if one of you is a vampire. I mean, that's some huge stuff to get past.

I am truly a romantic--in my head. Sixteen years together with the same mortal (like how I snuck that in?), I miss how the earth would jolt when he walked in the room. The butterflies. That intense not only want, but need to be with that person. You know, the counting down the seconds until you see them again. Everything is so exciting--it truly is like the world revolves around just the two of you. I miss that feeling.

I have to remind myself of things now, after a mortgage, two busy kiddos, the routine that settles in. Make an effort and all. Holding hands. Weekend getaways. Deployments. We have our moments. And I still count down seconds until I see him again--see him walk in the door and relieve me of the kiddos for ten minutes. It's different. Not bad, just different. I loves my mortal. I'm kind of, sort of, yes, yes I am, used to him and he can handle me, but I have really thought how they should really try to invent that feeling. Butterflies in a bottle. Make them into pretty little pink pills. I'd buy that.

And this love in Twilight is something. A century in the making. He waited for her. (siiigh). Kind of like in The Notebook (another favorite) where he builds a house for her. He builds a house for her! That is so, so, so romantic (I'm gonna have to watch that today now). Years go by and he is still waiting for her. (siiigh)

And I don't know if I'd want to be immortal just to be with the man (vampire) I love. I don't want to live forever (despite how cute my hubbs is)...here. I've got bigger and better plans. But it's a nice thought. Again, romantic. Good fiction. Good writing, Stephenie Meyer. I pretend I have some sort of connection with her, because she went to BYU (I know people that went there) and she lives in Arizona (I grew up there). Because she based the book in Washington (which might as well be Oregon) and in the movie shows places I've been to before, or could drive to in three hours. And I'm a writer (i joke)--we have a certain kinship, Stephenie and I. I like to live in my imagination too. Maybe that's why that love story is so dang good...it's not real. Most of us don't have that. We have something good. Something close. We yearn for someone to look at us like that. To count our heartbeats.

Maybe you do have this. Really? You look at each other like that every single time after ten years, twenty? You'd become a vampire? You should write a book. Tell me more about it. I'm a sucker for these things, if you haven't noticed.

A Lot, A Lot, A Lot...

TGISunday! It's been busy, y'all. Like so busy that when Friday came, there was no relief. Just that whole--it t'aint over yet. And I don't even care that tomorrow is Monday. Just so blissfully happy that it's Sunday and there's nothing to do (or I'm pretending there isn't anyway), but church and the couch.

I just remembered O's math homework and (another) speech tomorrow. Flip.

Lemme back track and share the week. I've still got some deep thoughts going on, but again, in an effort to keep it light and fluffy in blogland, I'll just share the fun stuff. Enter, taking the kiddos snowboarding.

We did that last Monday. The kiddos had an in-service day at school, so after hubbs finally convinced me to go up to the mountain (snow = very cold Momma) and I took care of *everything* to make this day trip happen, we headed up. It's a quick drive. With the hubbs driving, about an hour. He's been wanting to take the girls snowboarding, since the moment we found out I was pregnant. He's been chomping at the bit for a good eight years now.

So we get there, and in true, true Chevy Chase fashion, it's closed. Yes, the mountain is closed. Ha, not really. Mountains don't close. But the skiing/snowboarding and more importantly, the ROPE TOW was not open yet, due to it being Monday. Who knew? Not hubbs. But I'll stop there.




It actually worked out better, cuz we broke the rules and snowboarded anyway. We had it all to ourselves for about 45 minutes, until other people pulled up, in true Chevy Chase fashion. So that was a plus--plenty of room for the girls to get to know their snowboards and what falling feels like. The only minus--no rope tow. We were the rope tow. Well, I quit being the rope tow after three tows up that hill. Are you kidding me? So hubbs pushed the girls up and I pushed hubbs up. We work...together. Ha.



The girls rocked the snowboards. Teach your kids young, y'all. They were naturals. Hubbs was in his own personal Heaven watching his girls be awesome and absolutely *love* something he does. They are all about the dance (tutus/tap shoes/hip hop and recitals are my own personal Heaven), so it was good to see them do something *else*. And rock it.







Speaking of dance (my turn), we got to go watch some dancing yesterday. My kiddos didn't perform, but my sister did an alumni dance,with all the dance team alumni from her old high school. The Pony Prancers is what they are called. They had Pony Prancers dancing out there from 1982, or something. They were the entertainment for a dance competition. It is the second time I've seen my sister dance. She is *awesome*. And I just found out she wants to try out to be a Blazer dancer. She's even got the hair flip down. She's been practicing (smiiiile).

That's my sis making the funny face...

She's second row from the back, second one in from the left (the blonde w/one hand on her hip)




We loved watching all the different routines. The costumes. The spirit (it's in the rule book). The hair extensions. I found my favorite were the hip hop routines. I just loooove dancing to the hip hop. Or I used to, when I did such things. My absolute fave of the entire competition were these kiddos doing a hip hop routine. They were little. But they had skiiiills. I really think they stole the show. Them, and of course, my awesome sister. You know, we are a lot alike. I do need to work on my hair flip though.



I'm not finished yet either. Long weekend. We also had the sleepover. My oldest went to a birthday party sleepover and my little one had a friend over here. The kiddos finally passed out over here at like 10:30 or something. My oldest...I think she finally passed out at like 3 a.m. She looked like it too. I'm just gonna pretend like her staying up until 3 a.m., in second grade doesn't bother me. Hmmm...I may have to blog about this.


It took them a while, but they finally passed out...almost in the same sleeping bag...

There's more stuff to say( there always is), but I'm sure you've got things to do. Despite my absolute need to do nothing at all today, I know I've got things to do too--math homework.

Thanks for playing!